Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2011!This book offers an introduction to modern ideas about infinity and their implications for mathematics. It unifies ideas from set theory and mathematical logic, and traces their effects on mainstream mathematical topics of today, such as number theory and combinatorics. The treatment is h

The last time Jess saw her father, she was a boy. Now she’s a high school graduate, soon to be on her way to art school. But first she has some unfinished business with her dad. So she’s driving halfway across the country to his wedding. He happens to be marrying her mom’s ex-best friend. It’s not like Jess wasn’t invited; she was. She just never told anyone she was coming. Surprise! Luckily, Jess isn’t making this trip alone. Her best friend, Christophe—nicknamed Chunk—is joining her. Along the way, Jess and Chunk learn a few things about themselves—and each other—which call their feelings about their relationship into question.

When childhood friends Ryan and Myra meet after years, they realize how disillusioned and unhappy they are. Career slumps and burnouts compounded by unresolved internal conflicts had taken a toll. An epiphany urges them to make an impromptu trip to Norway on a shoestring budget, something which was on Myra’s bucket-list since she was a teenager. Together they undertake a journey that is initially fraught with emotional upheavals. Slowly, they shed their emotional baggage and discuss some of life’s big questions while rediscovering their own special bond. In the quest of finding meaning, the conundrum arises when Ryan and Myra must decide what ‘happily ever after’ means to them and whether they will have one…

Original anthology features less-technical essays discussing logic, topology, abstract algebra, relativity theory, and the works of David Hilbert. Most have been long unavailable or previously unpublished in book form. 2012 edition.

In 1913, Russian imperial marines stormed an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Athos, Greece, to haul off monks engaged in a dangerously heretical practice known as Name Worshipping. Exiled to remote Russian outposts, the monks and their mystical movement went underground. Ultimately, they came across Russian intellectuals who embraced Name Worshipping—and who would achieve one of the biggest mathematical breakthroughs of the twentieth century, going beyond recent French achievements. Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor take us on an exciting mathematical mystery tour as they unravel a bizarre tale of political struggles, psychological crises, sexual complexities, and ethical dilemmas. At the core of this book is the contest between French and Russian mathematicians who sought new answers to one of the oldest puzzles in math: the nature of infinity. The French school chased rationalist solutions. The Russian mathematicians, notably Dmitri Egorov and Nikolai Luzin—who founded the famous Moscow School of Mathematics—were inspired by mystical insights attained during Name Worshipping. Their religious practice appears to have opened to them visions into the infinite—and led to the founding of descriptive set theory. The men and women of the leading French and Russian mathematical schools are central characters in this absorbing tale that could not be told until now. Naming Infinity is a poignant human interest story that raises provocative questions about science and religion, intuition and creativity.

Aran Dyfar's wanderlust leads him on a quest to discover the mythical Road to Infinity. Along the way he encounters friends, monsters, and wonders beyond imagination. A picaresque adventure sure to please fans of Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Lyonesse series.